9/11 museum: Tragedy turns the mundane into memorial

By Moni Basu, CNN

Updated 1352 GMT (2052 HKT) September 11, 2014

9/11 memorial and museum23 photos

9/11 memorial and museum – Artifacts from ground zero get a preview at the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York. Among them is a cross made out of steel from the World Trade Center in the 2001 attacks. The museum opens its doors Thursday, May 15, to the 9/11 community -- survivors, rescuers and families -- almost 13 years after terrorists hijacked and crashed four airliners into the towers, killing nearly 3,000 people. The museum will open to the public May 21.

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9/11 memorial and museum – A destroyed New York City Fire Department ambulance from ground zero is on display.

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9/11 memorial and museum – Cards, patches and mementos of those killed at ground zero -- single objects convey the tragedy of that day, the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil.

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9/11 memorial and museum – Audio and visual panels tell the story of 9/11 during a press preview of the memorial.

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9/11 memorial and museum – An American flag was recovered from the World Trade Center site.

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9/11 memorial and museum – Pieces of American Airlines Flight 11 are on display. The plane plowed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001.

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9/11 memorial and museum – The remains of a New York City Fire Department Ladder Company 3 truck are on display outside the historical exhibition area. Eleven members of Ladder 3 died when the North Tower crumbled.

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9/11 memorial and museum – Helmets worn by firefighters on September 11, including those of Christian Waugh, were donated by families.

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9/11 memorial and museum – A photograph at the memorial shows one of the World Trade Center towers collapsing after the attack.

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9/11 memorial and museum – The symbolic "Last Column," right, a steel beam from one of the towers, stands near the "slurry wall," left, which holds back the Hudson River waters.

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9/11 memorial and museum – A firefighter shirt from ground zero is on view.

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9/11 memorial and museum – Visitors peer through the windows of the museum on May 8.

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9/11 memorial and museum – Charlotte Newman, 8, visits the National September 11 Memorial on September 8.

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9/11 memorial and museum – The wedge-shaped pavilion entrance of the museum, center, is located between the square outlines of the memorial waterfalls at the World Trade Center.

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9/11 memorial and museum – A visitor to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum takes in the sight as he walks past on September 6.

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9/11 memorial and museum – A rose is placed next to the name of a victim of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center at the North Pool of the memorial.

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9/11 memorial and museum – 9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels, left, and Museum Director Alice Greenwald speak during a tour. Several large artifacts from the original World Trade Center have been installed in the museum.

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9/11 memorial and museum – Part of the World Trade Center's original foundation, left, and the last column removed from the WTC site, center, are covered in a protective wrap during construction of the museum.

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9/11 memorial and museum – The "Cross," made of intersecting steel beams found in the rubble of 6 World Trade Center, and a fragment of a trident column, center, one of 84 that formed the exterior structure of each tower, are prepared for display.

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9/11 memorial and museum – The original stairway from the World Trade Center Plaza to Vesey Street, left, is seen at the museum.

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9/11 memorial and museum – The New York City Fire Department Engine Company 21 truck is covered in a protective wrap as it is prepared for display.

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9/11 memorial and museum – Contractors work to finish construction of the memorial and museum.

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9/11 memorial and museum – One World Trade Center rises above the lower Manhattan skyline in New York.

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Story highlights

National September 11 Memorial Museum is open to the public in New York

The exhibition halls are filled with personal things as well as oral histories and photos

Museum curator had the difficult task of deciding how much tragedy to show

The museum is also about how people can be good to one another in times of crisis, curator says

When does the ordinary -- letters, gloves, wallets -- become extraordinary?

When the objects tell a story: a stack of personal letters that fell to the ground after a hijacked plane plowed into the World Trade Center; leather gloves worn in the recovery effort; a red wallet belonging to a woman who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald.

Tragedy turns the mundane into memorial. Something as simple as a wallet can evoke the immense sadness of a day like September 11, 2001.

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Objects big and small from the greatest terrorist attack on American soil now make up a museum dedicated to that tragedy and the 2,983 people who perished. It is one of America's largest and most ambitious memorial museums, almost entirely subterranean and erected in the graveyard of Osama bin Laden's victims.

A police officer found Genni Gambale's red wallet on the roof of a Marriott hotel, a few blocks south of the Trade Center, days after the attacks. In the wallet were a scorched American Express Corporate card, a $115 coupon for Lenscrafters, a Brooklyn Public Library card, pennies, nickels, dimes.

Construction worker Frank Silecchia found a crossbeam in the rubble that resembled a cross. It became a key exhibit at the new museum.

Now under thick Plexiglass, the wallet tells of a life cut short. Gambale was one of many trapped on the upper floors after American Airlines Flight 11 plowed into the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. She was 27.

The National September 11 Memorial Museum opened in May for the 9/11 community -- survivors, families, rescuers. Shortly after it opened to the general public.

The place in itself is an artifact, built in the bedrock of tragedy. Within it are 12,500 objects, 1,995 oral histories and 580 hours of film and video. "An airplane hangar full of largely bruised, contorted artifacts" formed the basis of the museum, says curator Jan Ramirez.

They are objects that cheated destruction. They survived the obliteration of the material world and assumed an otherworldly quality.

But they also could inflict pain again.

From the beginning, Ramirez and all those who worked under museum director Alice Greenwald faced a flurry of contradictions and dilemmas over what to show, how much to reveal.

Where the twin towers once soared are now two sunken granite pools, positioned in the footprints of the giant buildings that came crashing down that day. They are meant to be places of reflection and mourning.

What was the museum's intent? Was it to illustrate a narrative of what happened on September 11? Or would it be a repository for the study of an American tragedy?

If it were the latter, the museum would have to collect objects much more broadly.

"We decided to take that path. We decided to be ambitious and daring," Ramirez said.

Firefighter James Wind rushed to the scene to help. The first thing he saw was his fire company's heavily damaged truck.

But with that decision came new concerns and obstacles. How do you portray horror without overwhelming people who come to visit? How do you memorialize things that people might rather not remember?

The museum, said Ramirez, is sure to be emotionally overwhelming to anyone who survived September 11, to all New Yorkers, and perhaps even to the millions of people who watched the events of that day unfold on television.

She described the helmets of firefighters that were donated by their families. Some were so brutalized that it's not hard to imagine the severe trauma to the heads those helmets were meant to protect.

"We all had our different thresholds about what was the right thing to do," Ramirez said. "We want to remind people why 9/11 was unlike any other day the country has experienced. But we did not want to cross a threshold where a visitor's empathy shuts down. That would be a horrible misfire of our objectives."

So some things in the museum are clearly marked and separated in alcoves. In one section are images of people jumping to their deaths from the towering infernos.

"In the end we felt this was part of the morning's indelible horror," Ramirez said. "To edit that out might arouse suspicion about what else we edited out."

The museum collected items from survivors, families of the dead, first responders, cleanup workers and agencies that were part of the investigation.

Objects like Gambele's wallet were precious to families. In many cases, bodies were never recovered or identified. Objects were all the families got back.

Other objects mean something to survivors.

Hazem Gamal worked for OppenheimerFunds on the 34th floor of the South Tower. He stored personal letters in a filing cabinet in his office. In December 2001, a demolition consultant, Ray Coleman, discovered the letters amid the rubble. He was amazed by them.

New York police officer David Brink picked up a pair of gloves from a hospitality tent for recovery workers. Someone had written the words, "Thank you" on them.

Nothing else Coleman had seen was discernible. No chair, table, computer. Everything was pulverized or mangled beyond recognition. But these letters were intact, only slightly singed and waterlogged. The clip holding them together had rusted.

Coleman kept the letters for a year. He was afraid that if he called the owner, he might learn that he had died. Finally, in November 2002, he dialed Gamel's home. Then he returned the letters.

He included this note written in pencil on engineer's paper:

"I hope that you will cherish these papers, and cherish your family," he wrote. "If this project did anything for me, it has taught me to love every minute, love my family and friends, and take time to do the things that are really important."

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"If things don't go well, and it's not looking good, I just want you to know I absolutely love you. I want you to do good, go have good times. Same to my parents and everybody, and I just totally love you, and I'll see you when you get there."

New York police officer David Brink donated a suitcase full of things to the museum, including a pair of gloves he picked up in a hospitality tent set up at ground zero.

Brink, like other recovery workers, used his hands to scour through a wasteland of debris. He had to change out his gloves frequently because they got so damaged. One day, he picked up a pair of leather gloves and didn't notice until later, when he was in the wreckage, that someone had taken a ballpoint pen to the palms of the gloves and written, "Thank you."

He didn't know where the gloves came from or who had written those words. The hospitality tents had equipment and supplies donated by people from all over America.

The gloves could have been from a firefighter in California or a school kid in Indiana or a housewife in Iowa, Brink thought. But the "Thank you" helped him get through trying days.

Over the years, some objects became symbols of 9/11.

One was the fire truck that belonged to the New York Fire Department's Ladder Company 3.

On September 11, Capt. Paddy Brown and Lt. Kevin Donnelly had rushed with their crew from Manhattan's East Village to the North Tower minutes after Flight 11 struck. The firefighters made their way up the skyscraper to find and evacuate victims. Some people later said the sight of the firefighters gave them a sense of calm in the midst of terror.

A short while later, 11 members of Ladder 3 were dead as the North Tower crumpled.

James Wind, a member of Ladder 3, was off that day. But he made his way to ground zero to help.

When he arrived on the scene, he saw his company's truck. The ladder was bent down to the bumper. The front of the truck was on fire but it was still running and the lights were on.

"That truck was battered around like a ping-pong ball," Wind said. "It was a beast, but there was a bigger beast that took it."

An officer always carries a list of his men and leaves a copy in the truck. Wind reached in and looked at the second list. He hoped beyond hope but knew: He was probably looking at names of the dead.

They were his friends, his brothers. He knew their wives, their lives. He'd seen them almost every day for years.

He wants visitors to see the mangled truck at the museum. "Live your life," he said, "but be aware. This can happen still."

Construction worker Frank Silecchia felt damaged from days of recovery efforts. He'd already worn through several pairs of boots -- the steel was so hot at the site that it melted the soles. He'd volunteered to help with the hope of finding a survivor. He found none.

On Day 3, he helped carry out three bodies from 6 World Trade Center and paused to look out at the destruction. A 17-foot-long crossbeam weighing at least two tons had landed at a perfect vertical angle. Silecchia saw a cross.

He dropped to his knees in tears.

He believed it was a sign from God. He found renewed strength to carry on.

A few days later, he showed his discovery to a Franciscan priest named Father Jordan, who pushed to get the World Trade Center cross lifted out of the wreckage and preserved near the site.

Silecchia believes the museum will be like walking through a horror show for some visitors. He hopes that seeing the cross there will bring comfort, just as it did for him 13 years ago.

Ramirez, the museum's curator, said regardless of religious belief, people found inspiration in the cross and that is why it was included in the museum. She hopes the ordinary objects in the exhibit stand as testament to courage, kindness and human resiliency.

Ramirez considers herself and her colleagues at the September 11 museum third responders. They are the people who set evidence aside; the people whose job it was to give meaning to ordinary objects.

"It's a collective story about how people can be good to one another in times of crisis," she said. "We've put out our first draft of history."

Mohammed Hamdani's name isn't among the first responders that are on the 9/11 memorial. But on that day, the 23-year-old certified EMT skipped his job at a university research lab to rushed to the World Trade Center.

Today's fifth-graders were not even born on that day. For them, September 11 is history -- and often, a topic in their history class. And as of last fall, 21 states specifically mentioned 9/11 in their social studies standards.